Who is in command in Naxal dominated areas?

Point counter point. P. Chidambaram versus Arun Jaitley versus Raman Singh. The war of words went on as the body count of Maoist insurgency victims went up: four more CRPF jawans were killed on Wednesday in Lalgarh, West Bengal, and there were other incidents of violence in Orissa.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who arrived in the capital sought appointments with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram and unwittingly, perhaps, jumped into the middle of the exchange of hot words between the Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaitley.

Mr. Singh put an end to the debate on limited or unlimited mandate of the Centre or the States in dealing with the insurgency problem and in the process contradicted what Mr. Jaitley has been propounding on the Centre's primary responsibility on security issues that impinge on sovereignty.

“The State government remains in command of all Central forces sent to it on its request… They work under us… the planning of an operation is done by the Superintendent of Police or the Inspector-General under the direct control of the State government, which decides where and how these Central forces are to be deployed,” Mr. Singh asserted when a handful of journalists met him at the Chhattisgarh Sadan here.

Mr. Singh did not shirk responsibility for what had happened in Chhattisgarh, with two major successes notched by Maoists in quick succession taking a heavy toll of more than a hundred security personnel and civilians in April and May. He said he had received “adequate” support from the Prime Minister and the Home Minister and had good relations “with all.” And he was in “command” of deployment of forces.

And just a few hours later Mr. Jaitley took on Mr. Chidambaram questioning his new play of words on the Centre's “limited mandate” as against the State government's “unlimited mandate” to deal with the problem.

Mr. Jaitley did not buy this argument. The BJP leader pointed out the Home Minister had, in his interview to a television channel, clearly referred to the “limited mandate” given to him by the Cabinet Committee on Security although he sought more powers, adding he would go back to the Cabinet (for a larger mandate).

Political rhetoric and scoring of points apart, the hard facts of our federal system are that States have defended their sole jurisdiction over all problems that need the intervention of the police. Even though the fine print of the Constitution does seem to recognise the duty of the Union to give effect to social justice in tribal areas (Fifth Schedule of the Constitution) and the control of the Union on “deployment of any armed force of the Union … in any State in aid of civil power,” in practice this control remains limited.

As senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan put it, the key words were “in aid of civil power,” and no doubt in these instances civil power is represented by the State government. At the same time, his view was that “operational control” of the Army or the armed police sent to a State government must remain under the control of the Union. One cannot have a situation where the SP or the IG or a Collector can order the Army. “This is an area of cooperative federalism for the State government and the Centre to work out to indicate the area of stress…”

In 1992, when Prime Minister Narasimha Rao sent Central forces to Uttar Pradesh, the Kalyan Singh government refused to deploy them to secure the threatened Babri Masjid. The district administration used every trick to prevent the Central forces from coming to the trouble spot. It would seem only in areas declared to be “disturbed” does the Union and its forces, in practice, enjoy almost dangerously unfettered powers.

Mr. Singh said he wanted air support, indicating that by this he meant “not bombing of areas or air attacks of Naxal dominated areas” but “logistical air support” for evacuation of injured and supplies to the policemen out on patrol as well as surveillance.

The Chief Minister made the point he would not be surprised if the Maoists were getting some help from the LeT for, they had mastered the skill of using IEDs, which “cannot be done by ordinary adivasis.” He certainly felt there was need to “review the strategy” to deal with the problem.

“The guerillas have changed their tactics to mobile warfare,” and the Centre and the States have to work out a strategy to counter these new tactics. He suggested a coordinated action plan for a “template of districts most affected spread over several States.” He admitted that his State simply did not have a police force capable of fighting the Maoist guerrilla force. As for development, his State had “one-third the national average of infrastructure,” be it railway lines, roads, schools, hospitals, drinking water…

The Chief Minister may not be pointing fingers at the Centre, but his party, the BJP, surely is. When Naxal attacks were at their height in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP blamed the “soft on Naxals” approach of the Congress, and when Chhattisgarh is under attack, of course, the Centre and the Congress is to be blamed, not the State government or the BJP.

Nation-state is a concept based on group existence, and democracy is a concept based on equality, but in a democracy, if equal status, equal opportunity,is denied to a section of people, for the capitalist gains of the people governing the Nation-state and the other section of people who are in support of this inequality, A REVOLUTION, by the distressed section is inevitable.
No one is innocent.

from:
Adv. A. J. Joshi

Posted on: May 31, 2010 at 18:35 IST

Seems that very few of our 'babus' understand the 'magnitude of the situation' they have created. Would be strongly advisable if they looked into the recent histories of the revolutions of South America and some of their leaders - Emiliano Zapata, Ernesto "Che" Guevara and go through the writings of Leo Tolstoy. They will learn that the people they call "terrorists against the Indian state",personally believe that what they are doing is for the "GOOD OF THE COUNTRY THEY LOVE"! In their way of thinking they are relieving our "Motherland" of corrupt leaders.

from:
Alfred J.Tims

Posted on: May 21, 2010 at 10:53 IST

To those ignorant about why there has been a rise in the attack against the Indian govt: Back in 2006, the state government of Jharkand recruited child soldiers under operation "salwa judhum" campaign. The resulting atrocities of rape and murder of adivasis had its negative effect and Maoists had their support. This is not a naxal problem, this is the problem of corruption, abuse of power and corporate influence in the Indian political system. The ball is now rolling, it is up to the educated Indian masses and the conscience of the good that can stop this insanity.

from:
Vinay

Posted on: May 21, 2010 at 03:22 IST

This time is not for comment and work together for end of naxals.

from:
jaydev kukmar

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 11:28 IST

We are ruled by confused politicians and are immobilising the executives, the police, paramilitary forces and military with their immature decisions. Politicians being indecisive allow Naxals and terrorist to kill innocent people. It is no wonder that Naxals, nurtured under this confused climate, had grown powerful enough to challenge both the Centre and State and are indulging in mindless killing of innocent people.

from:
sundaram

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 11:26 IST

Chief minister's request for support must be given. At present air support is required in the state. Meetings of PM/HM/Head of state police be held on this matter & the strategy be adopted. The execution of strategies & their action plan should be most confidential.

from:
ashok bagga

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 10:36 IST

In my opinion, public poll should be organized by the leaders of all political party before going to make any comment on any issue to public. I felt hurt when I saw that government agencies counting the bodies of soldiers and Maoists died during the operation. Bth of them are from our society;above all they are human beings and most valuable part for any country. At the age of fast technology such incident is really a big setback for us.

from:
Mrinmoy Chakraborty

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 09:26 IST

The leaders of the Central government have often stressed the point that the violent activities of the Maoists constitute a war against the Indian State with the ultimate objective of usurping power to rule the country .If that be so the Maoist attacks cannot be characterised as just a law and order problem to be tackled by affected regional governments. The responsibility for fighting and defeating the enemy that attacks the Indian State rests squarely on the Central government.

from:
K.Vijayakumar

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 08:32 IST

It's not the time to decide who's responsible for what has happened.

Rather it's high time to take even stronger step against them.

Let's be united not to just to stop it but to end it.

from:
Bibhu

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 07:50 IST

For god's sake stop playing a blame game. It's high time to come to some strong decision against Maoists. If we remember, similar situations were there in NE, Punjab and J & K, which were not taken care at right time and they had taken a shape of an epidemic. I appeal through your paper, to our Government that if you think Maoist are our own countrymen and we cannot take strong actions against them, then the Security Forces dying there are also INDIANS not the hired troops or Mercenaries. Please wake up before it is too late

from:
Ravi Jaswal

Posted on: May 20, 2010 at 07:19 IST

These politicians should be sent to fight the Maoists. Only then will the rhetoric stop and some action begin. As a retired soldier I know how easy it is to talk, but how difficult is it to fight.Our policemen are only good at taking bribes and are least capable of fighting anybody.The politicians only want to become richer and hardly know anything about law and order. The BJP has forgotten even the fact that they set free a top criminal when they were in power.They have no principles, no respect for the law or the Constitution.They know only one thing and that is to capture power by hook or by crook and outdo the Congress in bribery and corruption. The author is correct and the BJP has shown its true colors.